Sally ZimneyFounder & CEO, Be Moved by Sally Z

Dealing with disappointment as an entrepreneur

13 Aug 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:23

In this reflective monologue, the speaker addresses the common entrepreneurial experience of launching a project with high hopes, receiving initial affirmation, and then confronting a reality that falls short of the imagined vision. The core advice is to intentionally hold space for both the beautiful, aspirational vision and the inevitable disappointments that accompany it. By recognizing that each contains moments of the other—disappointments can reveal unexpected beauty, and visions require hard, gritty work—entrepreneurs can shift their perspective, find unique value in setbacks, and avoid becoming trapped in a cycle of disappointment. The talk emphasizes the importance of balanced intention, reframing challenges as part of the creative journey, and accepting that any meaningful vision comes with a hard road.

Chapters

What do we do when we are driven by this vision and have these deep wishes and hopes for ourselves, for our business, when we send out a proposal, when we even get the yes and are trying to bring it to life, and then reality is really, really different from that? How do we not sit in this place? And be wracked with disappointment and feel like that's what it is. I think the key is holding intention, both of these, the disappointments and the beautiful vision, because even the beautiful vision is going to have disappointments, and the disappointments are going to have moments of beautiful reality as well. No one thing is all one thing. So it's all in our perspective, our ability to find the beauty in the disappointments, find the pieces that are unique and special to that moment and could only be because of this harder road. And at the same time, recognizing that these fictional visions don't come without a hard road. It's all part of it.